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Since surgery last Fall, it has taken me some time to rebuild my walking endurance and speed. As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I now see myself more as a semi-committed waddler than a serious walker. I used to do a fourteen-minute mile. (Yeah, I know. Real impressive to all you runners out there.) Now it is eighteen-minutes…. And if there is the slightest of hills, sometimes a bit more. And if it is too cold, I don’t go out at all. And if it is too warm, I don’t go out either. So, honestly, just as I have a good singing voice within about an eight-note range, I also am a dedicated walker within about an eight-degree range on the thermometer.
Occasionally, however, there are walks just too important to miss, and for me two of those happened this past weekend.
The first was the No Kings march which took place in over 3,000 locations on Saturday. I missed the last one in October and think I have a good excuse (having fifty staples in my skull and all), but this time I did not, and it felt important to show up.
It felt important for reasons that seem too obvious to me to have to explain at length, but cliff notes version: It felt important because I am Christian and I don’t think anyone who is committed to Christianity can ignore the current moral state of our U.S. government which often purports to participate in and support the same faith tradition. Yesterday provided one way of partnering with others who share a common abhorrence for the way our administration is acting toward…well, pretty much everyone here and abroad…and the inability of Congress to do its job in response.
What caused the sense of abhorrence among those who walked was neither singular nor uniform. There are plenty of things the government has done to scandalize people and different people find different scandals the one they can no longer remain silent on. While sometimes the lack of a single focus has been critiqued, there also is a possible strength in knowing diverse people all agree “this is not okay” even if for different reasons. There were a couple people identifying as communist or chanting on behalf of Palestinians but there were just as many there with signs saying things like “Conservative Without a Party” and “Jesus Christ said ‘Love Your Neighbor’.” My personal favorite as a former high school teacher: “11 Years of Catholic School and You Expect Me Not to Love My Neighbor?” If you hear on the news that the marches are populated by radical leftists who were paid to be there, it is simply not true. Everyone I encountered was sufficiently horrified by the current situation to show up for free on their Saturday, whether they identify as leftist or not. There was lots of laughter, a good amount of singing, a few drums, one fantastic guy on stilts, and no violence. The local Catholic Worker House handed out free burritos.
Which brings me to March #2 on Sunday morning outside College Church where the congregation engaged in an equally peaceful Palm Sunday procession (and equally risky if you know anything about crossing Grand Avenue). No signs but plenty of palms and singing “Hosanna!” I think the national news missed this entirely, but for so many of us showing up at March #1, it was felt an obligation to do so because we’ve been part of March #2 for so many years now. It sounds ironic because March #1 was about chanting “No Kings” and March #2 is about remembering how Jesus was greeted very much as a king when entering Jerusalem. But at their core, both marches were and are about what true leadership is supposed to look like.
As Christians we hold that Christ modeled for us what leadership is supposed to look like: It is service of the people. It is humble. It travels on a donkey, not a personalized luxury jet as others wait four hours to get to their gate. It is honest. It is just. It uphold peace. And in the end, it involves willingness to lay down one’s own life for one’s flock. This is the leadership Jesus exercised and that each of us is called to exercise in our own lives, and it is the leadership we have been taught to expect. In the words of Pope Leo from his Palm Sunday sermon this year: “Brothers and sisters, this is our God: God, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”
Amazingly, this past Saturday and Sunday were both within my eight-degree ideal temperature for walking, and all the music at both was within my eight-note range for singing. A miracle! But I know that as the future unfolds, we (including me) will continue to be called to show up when it is not so temperate or harmonic. We’ll continue to show up for March #1 because we participate each year in March #2 and know it is an important way to practice our faith.
Wishing you a blessed Holy Week. I will be preaching for The Word this Easter so will post again soon.
PS – I think many of you already know the excellence of the College Church choir that sings every Sunday, but I wanted to share with you a bit about the group we sang with on Saturday: Singing Resistance. And then here is some information about my Norwegian red resistance hat – a special gift from one of my mom’s dear friends.